THE ARTISTIC TYPE: A BLOG OF THEATER, ARTS AND CULTURE

Central Florida is represented at the Filmapalooza Film Festival this week at Hollywood's famous Chinese Theatre with the movie "bottomless," which won the Orlando 48 Hour Film Project contest this year.

For the contest, "bottomless" was created in only 48 hours by Kyle Snavely of Orlando and Allison Tate-Cortese of Oveido, using family and friends as cast and crew. The film is one of more than 4,000 films from 115 cities around the world that competed in 2012.

Top winners in each local contest are screened at Filmapalooza.

Snavely, a media specialist at Workforce Central Florida, previously taught video production at Oviedo High School and worked as a digital cinematography lab specialist at Full Sail University in Orlando.

Tate-Cortese, a former student of Snavely's, is studying film at the University of Southern California School for Cinematic Arts.

"We began working on the Orlando 48 Hour Film Project four years ago as an afterschool project," Snavely writes via email. "Back then, I incorporated the help of several of my students, but Allison was and is the most focused and professional on set, making sure we got the shots (and she has a great eye for shot composition, too)."

The pair has continued the tradition of working together on a fast film each year since.

The contest determines what type of movie competitors create; Snavely and Tate-Cortese were assigned "mockumentary" this year. Their concept for "bottomless": Following a group of people who don't believe in wearing pants.

"We wake up in the morning just like everyone else. We just don't put our pants on one leg on the time," says Matt Pickelpepper, one of the fictitious characters in the pseudo-documentary.

"We've come up with a system that seems to work," Snavely says. "I write the scripts and shooting schedule Friday night. Starting early Saturday morning, Allison is the Director/DP/Camera Operator and once she finishes a scene, she hands the footage off to me to edit. So while she's shooting, I'm editing."

They also maximize their limited time to create the film by staying out of each other's way.

"The system works because I don't tell her how to shoot the scene and she doesn't tell me how to edit," Snavely says. "This really speeds things up and that's important since we're under such a crazy deadline."

"bottomless" was nominated for 10 local awards and picked up trophies for Best Picture, Best Directing and Best Acting.

"I try to write scripts that the audience will enjoy," Snavely says. "It's always a great feeling when the audience laughs where I hoped they would."

Festival winners will be announced on Sunday, March 10. The top 12 films will be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

For more information about Filmapalooza or the 48 Hour Film Project, go to filmapalooza.org